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Our community should be better than the debacle we are seeing nationally when it comes to how political viewpoints are dividing us as Americans. However, it appears we still have room to grow following a dust-up late last week between the city of Wheeling and the Ohio County Republican Party over allowing uniformed police and firefighters to take part in "The Freedom Train" procession.
The event, intended to "celebrate freedom and thank first responders," is set to take place Thursday. The procession will start in South Wheeling and end at Wheeling Park's White Palace.
There, those taking part will have the opportunity to go inside the White Palace and view Dinesh D'Souza's controversial documentary "2000 Mules," which alleges massive voter fraud occurred during the 2020 election. City officials, upon learning of the documentary, informed local GOP leaders that on-duty city police and firefighters would not be permitted to participate in what they see as a political event.
This in turn led to a response from Ohio County GOP vice chairwoman Carlee Dittmar alleging the city is willing to celebrate some events in Wheeling, but not others.
This is nonsense. There are easy fixes here -- if both sides would just work together.
The city could simply allow uniformed officers and firefighters to be part of the procession and return to work or head home when it reaches the White Palace. Or the Ohio County GOP could simply pick a movie more suited to the theme of the event -- something that honors first responders and the work they do to keep our community safe.
We need to be better than this.